


Some NitW Drabbles

by sekiyo



Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Mental Health Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24123745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sekiyo/pseuds/sekiyo
Summary: Some drabbles for Night in the Woods (probably mostly going to be MaeBea-focused, with not much Gregg or Angus, apologies). Definitely not going to be frequently updated, and crit/proofreading isn't going to be all too present. Tags will change as I add more to here, and rating may change as well.
Relationships: Mae Borowski/Bea Santello
Comments: 9
Kudos: 18





	1. It MaeBea A Normal Conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is both my first ever Night in the Woods drabble and first AO3 post, so... have fun reading! also definitely feel free to leave crit and stuff in the comments because i definitely need it

“Hey, Beabea?” Mae said, rolling over in her bed quickly to face her girlfriend, who was now sitting on a box against the wall and now looking over at her.

“Yeah, Mae?” the croc responded, her fingers pushing a tad too hard into her dummy cigarette. Mae adjusted her position again to get comfortable.

“You ever just get a thought stuck in your head? Like, really dumb shit that doesn’t actually matter at the moment but won’t go away? Uh. An annoying thought you can’t really get out of your head. An earworm, but like a thought or something, and you think about it all day?” she responded at length, making sure her voice was quiet, not wanting to wake herself up any further than she needed.

“Can’t really say that I have, Maeday. You having one now?” Bea asked with just a hint of concern. Worry didn’t really appear to be needed here, but something about Mae felt off at the moment in a way she couldn’t quite place.

“Kinda? Yeah.” Mae began, pausing for a moment to think before continuing. “It’s just… I was thinking back about college and I think I realized something? And I can’t stop thinking about it.” Bea sighed, taking her faux cigarette out of her mouth. Usually conversations about college resulted in Mae figuratively - and once literally - beating herself up once she got to thinking about how much of a ‘disappointment’ she was. She was always _wrong_ , but she couldn’t see that without help. 

“Mae, that wasn’t your fau-” Bea started, before being cut off by the blue cat.

“That’s not what this is about, promise.”

“Oh. Good.”

“It’s just- is cough syrup, like, actually unhealthy? Like legitimately?”

Bea tilted her head in thought for a moment. “It’s got a lot of things in it, could be. I think you’re fine, though, cough syrup abuse probably isn’t going to give you any long-term health issues.”

“No I mean, does it affect you mentally at all? I’m kind of having some vague memories of things from college but I’m not sure if they’re right.”

Bea paused. She didn’t really see that one coming, but it was a fair question. If it did affect Mae mentally, it could help explain why she had a near-constant episode of derealization at college. “I can check.”

“Yeah, uh, please do?” Mae responded, a growing concern now present in her voice.

Bea got up quickly, grabbing the laptop from under her girlfriend's bed where it once sat before sitting back down on her box. She opened it before hovering over Mae’s browser on the taskbar. She looked at the browser icon for a moment before turning back to Mae.

“Mae, you’re 20, right?”

“...Yeah? Why?”

“Congratulations, you are younger than the browser you run on this thing.”

“Wh- oh shut up!”

“Do you have an IRC client on here too by any chance?”

“ _Hush!_ ”

“Remind me to update literally everything you’ve downloaded on this PC with you later.”

Bea laughed slightly before turning back to the laptop. She booted up Internet Explorer - which felt no short of awakening a long dead primordial being from its eternal rest - and began to search up something before coming to yet another startling revelation about Mae’s laptop. “Do you have an animated pizza as your cursor? What is this, the early 2000s?” Mae grumbled something incoherently instead of actually taking the time to formulate an answer, which Bea took as joking annoyance. “Also, more importantly, what exactly was it that you took in college? Like, what brand?”

Mae shot up from her bed suddenly, which took Bea slightly off guard. She rubbed her eyes momentarily before answering. “I think it was like, ‘NyQuil Cough _blah-blah_ Night _blah-blah_ Cherry’. Something like that.”

Bea did some typing into the cat's ancient browser for a moment before turning back to Mae. “Vick’s NyQuil Nighttime Cough Relief? Has ‘Cough Suppressant’ on the label?”

“Yeah! That!”

“Well, the first ingredient listed here is immediately worrying, Mae. Not only does it cause vomiting and such, it’s also listed as being a dissociative at high doses- and you were taking high doses to knock yourself out.”

Mae’s eyes lit up at the two symptoms Bea listed, before immediately putting her right palm on her head and laying back down, seeming immediately more withdrawn once what exactly that meant about her college stay clicked in her head. “I’m such an effing idiot. God.”

“Hey, hey. Don’t say that. You did what you thought you had to.” Bea said, getting up and walking over to Mae’s bed to comfort her.

“But I made it _worse_ , Bea! It wasn’t even my head that time, that was just me, because I didn’t research the thing I was going through bottle after bottle of!” the small cat nearly shouted, her emotions starting to show more visibly. Bea wrapped her arm around her, holding her head closer to her.

“Either way you still would’ve dissociated, Mae. It just made it slightly worse.” she replied, trying to comfort Mae, who was now quite visibly tearing up.

“ _Slightly_!? I was familiar with my dorm, Bea! I wouldn’t have freaked out in there if I didn’t drug myself to the poi-”

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. It’s okay, you’re okay. Even if you would’ve been fine in your dorm - which I doubt - you still weren’t healthy in Durkillesburg. That statue would’ve still been there, you still would’ve seen it, you would’ve starved yourself for days and have eaten too many meals all at once because of it, and the outside still would’ve been unfamiliar to you.”

“I still would’ve been fucked up.” Mae quietly whispered, almost hoping Bea wouldn’t hear it.

“You still would’ve _dissociated_ , Mae. You’re not ‘fucked up’. You never have been. You’re strong, okay? Stronger than you admit.”

“N- no? If I was ‘strong’ I would still be at college.”

“Mae, you’d still be at college if you weren’t strong enough to call home.” Bea said, shifting more to give the cat a well-needed embrace. Mae hesitantly tried to move away, but eventually decided to return the gesture.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Bea, I gave up the _one thing_ y-”

“No. We’re not having this conversation again, Mae. You’re not fit to be by yourself at college. That’s not really a bad thing, either, it’s just something you can’t do.”

“I seem to have a lot of those.”

“Everyone does, not just you. Now please, get some rest. We’ll continue discussing this later if you’re up to it.”

“O- okay. Love you, Beabea.”

“Love you too, Maeday. Now please get some sleep, you need it.”

Bea ended the embrace, pulling away from Mae to let her get some more rest, before beginning to head towards the door. Just before she began to turn the handle, a thought crossed her mind and she turned back towards the cat. “Oh and, Mae?”

“...Yeah?”

“You’re banned from taking cough syrup. Without permission, I mean.”

“Wh- _permission_? Beabea, I’m 20!” Mae’s voice flared up in a not-fully-joking annoyance.

“You’re 20 with no quantity control on anything. Beer, food, cough syrup-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it.” she responded, before coming to the realization that barring her from consuming the devil’s syrup was just Bea trying to keep her safe, albeit from herself, and adding “Thanks.”

Bea looked back towards the door, shooting a glance at Mae to say “Least I can do.” before exiting the room, leaving Mae and her worries to be put to rest. Mae was really grateful to have her Bea, and as for Bea herself, she could probably say the same for Mae. Only ‘probably’, but that’s enough for Mae, and so she lets herself drift off to sleep once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't see it mentioned often that mae binge ate back in college, or even the fact that cough syrups a dissociative, so i. decided to do a thing about that. also i hope i didn't go overboard with the italics towards the end?? can you go overboard with italics? anyway. drabbles will be posted at The Rate I Write™, which is not to say very frequently. at all. oh also let me know if theres anything i need to tag because i am not good at that yet


	2. The Tunnels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae has an odd dream once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wrote this in 2 hours and 37 minutes. this isn't very dialogue-y until the end, and i'm probably not the best at descriptive writing, so apologies if the majority of it is kinda bad. or, alternatively, apologies if the dialogue i wrote is actually worse than the descriptions? which is possible! also credit to uh. bethany hockenberry and scott benson (just infinite fall in general really) for like, a lot of the character dialogue in this one. this is based off of cut dialogue from the game, so.  
> also please let me know if the formatting doesn't work with anyone! its basic html (alignment and bold and stuff) so it SHOULD, but there may be issues with ao3 formatting i don't know about! also sorry for the like, bunch of formatting updates i made like immediately after posting i suck at formatting ao3 right now

Drifting into a slumber, Mae opened her eyes within her dream, being confronted by a complete absence. The empty space surrounding her pressed in from all sides, entrapping her in an absolute nothing. The feeling it brought was almost peaceful, although laced with the terror that comes with not having anything to hold on to. Thankfully, the absence was gone in almost an instant, a new world rushing back into its place, leaving Mae to forget how the absence felt almost immediately as her physical senses shot to life.

The new world surrounding Mae was vaguely familiar to her, although she couldn’t quite place why. It was a hilled area of the woods where seemingly not much construction work had taken place, although it had the familiar air of an area used for mining. Of course, the woods were bathed in the astral lights of her dreams, although the looming eclipse of the echoes she wandered through previously was instead replaced with a standard moon. Thankfully, this place didn’t seem to be one of the echoes, so she could count on not having to summon a giant animal and suffering an astral freakout- although, that also meant no Deep Hollow Hollerers, which Mae thought kind of sucked. _“Why can’t every dream have those dudes? Would make them a lot nicer!”_ Mae said to nobody in particular, although the only place her voice traveled was through her own head.

Mae began to walk forward to reach wherever her destination would be, before being abruptly cut off by the sound of a gunshot. Quickly the cat turned towards the location of the sound, which she determined to be behind her. As she tried to identify the source, she saw a man standing on a hill, raising a small gun to the sky. He quickly flicked the safety back on before holstering the weapon. To Mae’s surprise, he wasn’t facing her, rather below the hill. She turned to where he was facing, spotting a crowd of people wearing similar outfits to the man on the hill- which she now realized to be heavy coats, not too dissimilar to the outfit Cult, although with a notable lack of hoods or mining gear. The man, which she presumed to be the leader of this gathering, began to speak, and so Mae decided to listen. Maybe this was her way out of this dream.

“We know not when the Lord will take us.” the leader began with a gruff and notably strained voice. “Brian knew the dangers of the mines, but he loved his family, and like so many of us he put them before his own safety.”

As the man spoke, two possibilities appeared in Mae’s mind. The first possibility: This is a gathering of the Cult of the Black Goat. That one was very unfavorable, and so Mae elected to put her belief to the second: this is a gathering of the Miner Tooth Cult. Mae thought on it for a moment longer, almost drifting off into her own head at the confusing realization that Possum Springs had two cults of distinctly different ideology that just coexisted with each other, before snapping back to attention as the man's voice picked up once more.

“But the God of the Heavens is the god of the tunnels, and we may rest with the knowledge that Brian is with Him now.” he finished before tilting his head down and reaching his arms out as if to address the crowd directly. “Amen” he and the crowd finished in unison as the man drew his arms together and clasped his hands as he began to speak again, his voice now notably more somber. “We consign Brian to the dust, and to the care of the Lord.”

As the man finished speaking, the world began to shift as if someone was shaping pieces of the world into something else all at once, although the people remained unchanged. Realities reconstruction drew to a sudden halt, leaving Mae now standing in the graveyard of Possum Springs (now of course burnt into the colors of her dreams), and the crowd and man at a singular headstone among the many. The shift left the cat slightly dizzied, although after a moment of recovery she elected to at least try and read the text on the stone. She approached slowly, attempting to cause no alert to the gathering, and although she guessed she couldn’t draw their attention if she started beating headstones in with a bat, she wasn’t going to take the risk.

Mae finally got as close as she could without having to do something that would draw attention to her, although the people surrounding the headstone blocked the text. She almost gave up before a thought barged its way into her mind. _“What risk? This is a dream! Eff it!”_ she mentally shouted at herself, before sprinting her way to the grave. Near immediately all of the group turned to look at her as Mae drew to a halt. She bet that she looked like a deer in headlights at the moment.

After a long pause of awkward staring, Mae offered a reluctant “Heeey, guys! How are you?”, her voice now not solely echoing through her head. Some of the group glanced at each other with what was almost definitely disbelief, before turning back to Mae. The leader cleared his throat, now slightly more strained from the speech he gave earlier, and decided on a simple “Leave”. And so the cat did, slowly backing up and returning with a “Bye! Nice meeting you!” in a near whisper before fully turning around and sprinting away just to get herself out of that situation. Eventually she stopped at a fence, the very same one she broke with a tree branch, before sitting down to catch her breath. She almost managed to relax for a bit, before being jolted out of her calm by a sharp, almost squeaky voice from above her.

“What do you want, _ghost_?” was what she heard, although she wasn’t quite sure she heard the last word right as it didn’t quite make sense. She didn’t quite know how to respond, since if she heard him wrong but acted as if she heard him right, then it would make the situation a lot more awkward.

“Hey dude.” was what she settled on, hoping that he wouldn’t notice the outright disregard of his question.

“I do not want your greetings ghost, tell me what you are here for.” the voice practically spat, allowing Mae to get better details on where exactly his voice was coming from. Following it for a moment, she saw an old mouse sitting on the fence, almost hidden from sight by leaves. He was wearing what seemed to be business-casual clothes, but they were in such a condition that they ended up looking more like hick clothes.

“Do I look like a ghost to you?” she shot back, though the genuine curiosity the question had paired with it took all of the sting away.

The man looked her up and down for a moment, before blinking twice and responding “Definitely so”, a country accent now pouring through immensely in his voice.

“Oh cool.” Mae responded after a moment, not as shocked as she probably should be at learning this information. Compared to the rest of the weird shit in her dreams, looking like a ghost isn’t that spectacular to her anymore. After a pause, Mae realized the man was waiting for her to answer his question, and she quickly answered “Quick question: Are we at a funeral?”

“Every moment spent at a grave is a funeral, kid.” the mouse said without missing a beat.

“I mean, not really? Funerals are more of an event than anything.” Mae said back after a short moment of thought, trying not to let being called ‘kid’ get to her.

“Every moment spent at a grave is a funeral.” he repeated, seemingly very stern about that belief. Mae began tapping at her legs absentmindedly.

“Well, okay. Who’s funeral is this, then?”

“Brian Rooke. He’s like ‘ya now, spirit. Suffocated down in them mines. Man named Ed Yacynich found ‘em buried in the dust and had him pulled out from his burial, and now here he is, buried again in a hole fit for only a corpse.”

“Oh. Yeah, that’s… weird. Huh. Is that all?” Mae asked, getting up from the ground to move on.

“Not ‘fore I ask you a question: Did Granny send you to torment me ‘n my sons?” the mouse asked, and though the question made no sense at all his voice had no change in tone, as if he was asking a basic question to the cat.

“I- what?” Mae responded, tilting her head in confusion. The mouse remained still, as Mae came to realize he had barely moved an inch since the start of the conversation.

“Sleep in the ground, ghost, where no one may wake you, and have peace.” he answered, finally standing up as his voice began to echo in Mae’s head, increasing in volume each time the echo pulsed in her head. His body seemed to loom over her threateningly, although he took no action to make himself one. The world began to feel heavier, and Mae’s head began to feel like it was splitting open once more. Her thoughts raced, a series of _“Again!?”_ as a melodical humming began to join in her thoughts. _“Oh come on! Really!?”_ she tried to shout, though her voice only echoed through her head. It’d been a while since this happened, which only made it worse. Finally, the split in her head formed into a hole, and the world began to break away as her body's coalescence began to break away into shapes.

And so Mae woke up, jolting from her rest with a headache. In the silence of her bedroom, she could hear a humming, thankfully quiet enough not to be enough of a bother. Trying to ignore it, she sighed and pushed herself up to grab her computer. Setting it down on her bed, she booted it up, wiping her eyes softly as they adjusted to the light. She saw that she, like normal, had a message from both Bea and Gregg. Gregg was in Bright Harbor now, but that didn’t keep him from messaging her actively. She decided to check Gregg’s message first, as she thought the energy of it might help her wake up.  
`**Knifebug-** HEy hey duder!!`  
`**Knifebug-** won’t be able to talk much today ;(`  
`**Knifebug-** work stuff`  
`**Knifebug-** totes talk to you later tho!!!!`  
`**Knifebug-** angus wants me to tlel you that thrs a bass part you forgot to send him`  
`**Knifebug-** for die anywhere else`  
`**Knifebug-** so do that thnx`  
`**Knifebug-** sincerely,`  
`**Knifebug-** greggory!!`

“Oh, right. I’ll… do that. Later.” Mae thought to herself, before clicking onto Bea’s chat icon. Surprisingly, it said she was still online.  
`**The Bea-** Hey Mae.`  
`**The Bea-** Pickaxe isn’t open today.`  
`**The Bea-** Come over if you want.`

`oh ok cool **-MaeDay**`

`**The Bea-** You alright?`

`yeah just bad dreams nothing much **-MaeDay**`

`**The Bea-** Was it one of. `  
`**The Bea-** Uh.`  
`**The Bea-** _Those_ dreams?`

`I mean yeah but its chill **-MaeDay**`

`**The Bea-** Oh. Well, let me know if you need anything.`

`i will! promise **-MaeDay**`

`also i’m gonna come over soon **-MaeDay**`

`**The Bea-** Alright. Love you.`

`awww, you too beabea **-MaeDay**`

`seriously though afk gotta head over **-MaeDay**`

`**The Bea-** Okay.`

Mae closed her laptop, now near fully awake and ready to head out. Today was going to be a good day, whether some stupid goat liked that or not! Tossing on a jacket from her floor, Mae headed to her door, briefly pausing upon reaching it to listen to the humming. It sounded chaotic, unplanned, like someone a full song with choruses, verses and bridges but making it up as they went. It was… quite bluntly, a _really_ horrible sound. Not that it mattered, though, the cat couldn’t care less about the musical talent (or lack of it) of some goat. She scoffed before tuning the sound out, and heading out the door, ready to start her day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, there it is! i really only wrote this because i'm way too fond of the cut quote "But the god of heaven is the god of the tunnels" which is literally the sole reason i wrote this. to put that in a fic. although here it's actually slightly modified to be "But the God of the Heavens is the god of the tunnels." because i thought that flowed better  
> anyway!!! hope you enjoyed it!!!


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